Mike Berman's Random Thoughts and Opinions

Sunday, December 31, 2006

Tiger in Trouble

Tiger Woods is in trouble. Yes, he's won the last 6 PGA tournaments he entered, but today he announced that he is expecting.

A friend referred me to this article in August 2006, saying Tiger might win 30 majors, which prompted me at that time to create the following chart, which indicates how long his 19th major victory will be delayed due to distractions from having a child:

Age When First Kid Born ..... Age To Win 19th Major31 ..... Will not win 1932 ..... age 4633 ..... age 4434 ..... age 4135 ..... age 3936 ..... age 3737 ..... age 36

So there you have it - Jack Nicklaus can pop the champagne. Woods will not beat his record of 18 major victories. You heard it here first.

Friday, December 29, 2006

The American Dream = Hoard Your Ideas!

I recently started a new blog where I post ideas for products, businesses, research projects, or anything else that comes to mind. Some of them might already exist, and many probably don't and never will. Since starting this project, I've been amazed at how often during the course of a normal day a new idea comes up in discussion.

The interesting phenomenon I have observed is when I ask people if I can share their idea with the world. In some cases they agree to do so, but in many cases they tell me that they do not want me to share their idea. This is primarily in the case where they think they could possibly make a lot of money from the idea. Now, we all know that the chances of this person bringing this product to market and making gobs of money is 1 in a million. Yet people still cling to this notion of hoarding their ideas. This seems to be some sort of odd corruption of the Amercian Dream. The way I see it - if some people want to implement my ideas and make money from them - good for them. I will enjoy using the products they create.

Example: Here is a site created by a guy who is seeking to invent a perpetual motion machine. Accomplishing such a feat would likely bring the inventor fame and riches beyond belief. Yet it appears that this individual has shared all of his thoughts, models (K'nex!), and stumbling blocks with the world - in the hopes that collectively we can develop a solution.

Monday, December 18, 2006

Optus Tennis Challenge

Saturday, December 16, 2006

The Sad Irony of James Kim

A big story that has been all the buzz recently was the tragic death of C-Net editor James Kim. He is a gadget expert who worked for a major website, providing insightful commentary on items such as mp3 players. He died when his family became stranded in a snow storm, and he was unable to survive when hiking for help.

Here are the two tragic ironies I see in this story:

1. It was probably Mr. Kim's cell phone, more than any other single thing, that killed him. After reading the details of the story, including from his surviving wife, part of the thought process in their selecting the treacherous driving route that they did, was that they had a cell phone that they presumed would save them in a worst-case scenario. The cell phone was never able to establish a signal, and even the ability to ping the phone was not enough for rescuers to locate them in a stationary location for more than 9 days. So in many ways it was a gadget that killed the gadget expert.

2. Of the dozens of gadgets that could have saved Mr. Kim (GPS device, satellite based internet or cell phone, etc.), he ultimately found himself stranded and hiking without any of them. Stories have surfaced about several things within less than 2 miles that would have saved them, had they known about them (cabin stocked with food, etc.). So it was a lack of full information, by way of a lack of useful gadgets, that killed the gadget expert.

Those who know me know that I am not a big supporter of cell phones. One of my biggest knocks against them is that people rely on them, inevitably resulting in a lack of proper planning. For example, no one ever seems to set up a meeting place/time anymore. They just agree to communicate via cell phone. So the whole event is one dead battery away from chaos. Similar arguments are obvious when people come to rely on their GPS navigation devices. If anything can be learned from this tragedy, maybe people will take a hard look at their devices and re-evaluate how much they should be relying upon them.

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Cooter

For everyone who was hoping to meet Cooter from The Dukes of Hazzard, if you didn't go to the Chantilly computer show last weekend I am sorry to inform you that you missed your chance. I wasn't able to make it either. I'm actually kind of bummed - I was really hoping to ask him a question about how to configure my router. Well, I guess I will have to wait and hope that Enos and Boss Hogg come to a show in 2007.